Chef Michael Smith’s five top foodie destinations in Charlottetown
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In small cities, it’s easy to bump into people you know, but in Charlottetown chef Michael Smith finds these encounters have a culinary angle – catch-ups with oyster farmers and lobster fishermen and cheese makers. And it’s not just because he’s writing a cookbook, he says.

“All of us know people that produce food. That really is the most powerful part of local food connections – people connections,” says Smith, who has published his seventh cookbook, Back to Basics, and whose latest Food Network series is called Chef Michael’s Kitchen. “We’re largely a rural place. We’re all in driving, walking, sight distance of a farm or the water or somebody who produces food. It’s what we do here.”

In his trademark down-home style, Smith shares five favourite stops in Charlottetown. Hungry?

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1. Water-Prince Corner Shop and Lobster Pound

“This would be my favourite place in Charlottetown to get a lobster. You’re
crammed in with the locals, shoulder to shoulder. No pretension. No baloney.
It’s just a good, solid way to get a good lobster meal, right downtown. You can
buy it live there. Or you can sit down and eat. Everything is homemade and
old-fashioned. It’s that quintessential lobster PEI experience.” 141 Water
St., waterprincelobster.ca

2. Terre Rouge

“I think of them as our single best locally focused restaurant. Very
focused on the seasons, time and place, the products of the island. It’s bistro
style, not fine dining. Lots of modern charcuterie. Just a good, solid up-to-the minute
bistro-style restaurant.” 72-74 Queen St., terrerougepei.com

3. Prince Edward Island Brewery

“PEI’s only brewery, they have a kick-ass tour
experience. You can take the tour and learn about how beer is made and enjoy it
at their bar. They’re all local. I like the Sir John A.’s honey wheat ale.”
96 Kensington Rd., peibrewingcompany.com

4. Culinary Institute of Canada

“This is one of Canada’s finest cooking schools. They offer boot camps that run
from May through September. Fully immersive.
Put on chef’s whites and learn how to cook. They have boot camps for kids. They
have boot camps where they take you out to the farm. These are three-, four-,
five-day experiences. They’re wildly popular. Secondly, they have a restaurant
at the culinary institute, the Lucy Maud Dining Room. It’s student run and
staffed. It’s got to be the best deal in town. It’s all local, all contemporary
and it’s wildly cheap.” 140 Weymouth
St., hollandcollege.com

5. COWS ice cream

“PEI’s dairy products are second to none anywhere
in the world. It’s real old-fashioned ice cream. All kinds of funky, crazy
flavours and the famous COWS ice cream T-shirts. Their creamery on PEI also
offers a big factory tour. My favourite flavour is WowieCowie: Every
form of chocolate and caramel known to man in one ice cream.” 150 Queen St.;
Great George Street in Peake’s
Wharf; COWS Creamery at 397 Capital Dr., cows.ca